Busby Treaty draft quietly hidden

A horn wailed and men dressed as warriors danced at 2.45am in Wellington yesterday as the James Busby draft of the Treaty of Waitangi was quietly removed from public display.

The cult-like ceremony was not for the document that is most likely the original English draft of the Treaty.

It was to mark the relocation of the remnants of the original document signed in 1840, the 1835 Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand also written by James Busby, and the 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition.

The documents were being relocated to a new public display called “He Tohu”, located a hundred or so metres along the street in the new National Library as part of a $7.2-million project.

Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne was sent a number of requests for the Busby February 4, 1840, document, also known as the Littlewood Treaty, to remain on display.

This was because this document is in Busby’s handwriting, is dated one day before the treaty debate in Waitangi, and has just a single word of difference from Te Tiriti, the text that the chiefs signed.

“Boot camp would do a better job of straightening up Maori early in the offending cycle rather than spoonfeeding young people who have been disconnected from family values because sometimes their whanau don't have decent values themselves," Mr Samuels said.

Further Gisborne co-governance body

Debate over potential conflicts of interest and the role of Ngati Porou was brushed aside as irrelevant as five Gisborne District Council councillors joined mayor Meng Foon as establishing members of a co-governance Local Leadership Body on Thursday.

Turanga iwi are represented by six people from Rongowhakaata Iwi Trust, Tamanuhiri Tutu Poroporo Trust and Te Aitanga a Mahaki Trust. The six iwi representatives were not yet known, said Mr Foon.

The Local Leadership Body focuses on resource management while recognising the claimed tribal relationship to ancestral lands, water, and sacred areas.

This agreement is separate from a resource agreement between Ngati Porou and the council covering resource consent applications, planning documents, and private plan changes within the Waiapu Catchment 145km north of Gisborne.

That agreement was passed on October 8, 2015.

Ngati Porou regard the Waiapu agreement as a first step towards joint decision-making powers in the entire Ngati Porou district, which extends from Gisborne up to the northern tip of the East Cape with the western boundary along the Raukumara Range.